The Real Hallow Sisters
by Hallow Sisters On My Mind
Summary: Esmerelda and Ethel Hallow hide behind masks not showing how depressed they are to anyone. WW 2017. Oneshot.


A/N: Thank you to the stargate time traveler for helping me with this idea I hope you all enjoy. I do not OWN the Worst Witch or the Worst Witch Characters.

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 **The Real Hallow Sisters**

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Ethel Hallow knocked twice on her sister's bedroom door waiting for her to let her in but she did not respond to her knock.

"Esmie" Ethel said knocking again as she used her nickname so she knew it was her.

When her older sister still did not respond Ethel grew worried, she knew she was in there she had seen her go in a few minutes ago, Ethel pushed on the door and walked in closing the door behind her.

Walking in Ethel saw her sister sat on her bed with her work spread around her clearly in the middle of homework with tears steaming down the face.

If anyone else had seen the girl in this situation they probably would have panicked but Ethel did not panic, without words she walked up to her sister and sat on the bed next to her wrapping her arms around her as the older girl cried gently and Ethel rubbed her back gently in silence letting her cry not asking why she was upset, Ethel already knew.

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The thing was Esmerelda and Ethel might be rich and live in a glorious mansion and come from a two parent household but that did not mean the two girls were happy because in fact they were not.

It was hard for people to notice during the busy schooling life but if they looked closer they would see the girls didn't laugh or smile or joke around not like the other pupils like Mildred, Maud, Enid and Felicity who were full of life and happiness.

The girls had learned to hide how damaged they were from the whole world so much so it came naturally now.

Both girls were very similar, both incredibly smart and ambitious, both looked remarkable similar to one another, both found physical contact with others awkward but with all the similarities there was between them there was striking differences.

Esmerelda hid behind the mask of grades and kindness, everyone thought she was an amazing perfect pupil who was kind and helpful and all this was true but that did not mean the girl was happy because she was not, the pressure from all directions got to her a lot and her dysfunctional home life had stolen her childhood and made it so she is only able to focus on work.

Ethel took a different approach, she hid herself through anger and bullying. She knew people would stop interacting with her if she was cruel to them and it hid the ache in her heart that never went away, the rejection from her parents making her untrustworthy and on edge never able to let anyone in properly.

Both girls were lacking friends, Esmerelda had acquaintances but not a proper best friend and Ethel had Drusilla who everyone knew was only with her as she had no-one else. Since they were young people had thought they were odd because they were obsessed with studying and didn't play in the same ways other children did so the two girls had only ever had each other and their other sister Sybil.

The girls were good at hiding themselves but inside they were broken but they would rarely show that to anyone else but each other.

Sometimes though like right now one of them let the mask slip and cried, not really for any reason but because they were so damaged because they could no longer cope with the hurt inside anymore and had to let it out and just cry.

This was why Ethel was so jealous of Mildred and Esmerelda would not admit it to many people but she was so purely jealous of the girl too, she though was good at hiding her jealously. It was the fact Mildred had barely anything and only had one parent but the girl was so happy and carefree despite all that and she had the one thing both girls really wanted: love and affection, true Esmerelda was liked by her parents and fussed over but it was not the same as with Mildred's mother, she was shown affection for her achievements and loved because of her achievements not because she was their child and Ethel was completely blanked by their parents, there was also the fact their parents were never even at home a lot of the time.

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There was a few times both girls had lost their composure during school-time but no-one thought this was because the girls could no longer cope with the ache inside of their hearts but for a different reason.

One such time for Esmerelda was during a special lesson, a dance lesson to be precise where a chorographer had come in to help the pupils and it was meant to be enjoyable but Esmerelda was a really bad dancer so she didn't try very hard not wanting anyone to see how bad she actually was.

"Esmerelda Hallow is there a reason you are not trying?" Miss Hardbroom who was overseeing the lesson with Miss Drill asked her.

"I am Miss" Esmerelda lied not wanting to get told off.

"Really I have seen more enthusiasm in a bowl of soup" Hardbroom replied as students laughed at the joke.

Esmerelda looked down at the ground ashambed to feel her eyes becoming wet something HB picked up on.

"Stop" HB told her hating when pupils cried for no apparently good reason "You are fourteen years old and you cannot be good at everything Esmerelda Hallow" HB shouted at her causing the girl to cry more as they were finishing the lesson.

Her classmates rolled their eyes at her as she cried as she packed up her bag all thinking she was so stuck up crying because she had figured out she was crap at something when actually the girl had not being able to hold in her emotions when she was shouted at because she was reminded of when they were shouted at at home for doing something wrong.

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Ethel had also let her guard down before during school at one point in particular.

After the disaster with her mother at parents evening when the woman had not even turned up the girl was going to her bedroom wanting to lie down and be by herself when she saw something that made her mask drop.

"Oh Mildred it is delicious" Julie Hubble told her child as she bit into the cupcake her daughter had just given her, the ones they had made that morning as a special lesson so the first years could surprise their parents, the ones Ethel's mother had totally rejected.

Ethel felt her eyes becoming wet but blinked back tears and told herself she was going to be alright, that was until Julie wrapped her arms around her child hugging her like she was the most amazing thing in the world and Ethel lost it and let the tears steam down her face, pushing past parents and her classmates who were looking at her strangely before running to her room and flopping on her bed.

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People of course noticed but did not realise why the girls were sad, they didn't realise the extent to how much they were hurting.

The thing was the girls would never complain about it, the witches code said witches were not meant to complain, witches had to deal with their own problems and there was also the fact that if they said something and social services got involved the sisters knew they would most likely be separated which they could not deal with.

So the girls would go on pretending they are fine and not broken inside never letting the world see what they were really feeling.


End file.
